Melbourne October 2011 – Philipp's TravelBlog

3 Months already!!!

I cannot believe how fast the time flies by while being in Melbourne. The city has so much to offer, there is simply no reason to be bored.

These are this month’s goodies:

small Oktoberfest at La Trobe University where I visited my german friend Steffen again
Rollerama with Sam – a place where you can hire rollerskates or -blades and drive around on an indoor rink 🙂 I love skating, and since I left my blades at home this was the perfect opportunity for me. Sam and I did not exactly meet the overall clientele who where either kids or parents, but we had great fun nevertheless!
“Spring Awakening – A new Musical” at Monash University – that was really good! And originally based on a German piece.
Nicole Porter’s 21st – the most important birthday for Aussies, and she had an awesome Harry Potter themed party. The dresscode was cocktail with a twist of Harry Potter 🙂 I bought a Gryffindor Tie to go with my suit and brought Jess as my +1.
Puffing Billy with Sam – an old steam train going through the Dandenongs. Again Sam and I were surrounded by kids and parents, but we had awesome fun and felt more like kids than parents 😉
Nicole from Germany, whom I had met on my first day in Sydney and spent lots of time with travelling Australia’s East coast, finally came to Melbourne. We caught up 2 nights in a row. On the first night we checked out Brunswick street in Fitzroy – lots of awesome pubs and places. On the second one we went down to St. Kilda to see the penguins and afterwards I showed Nicole the Rooftop Bar. Both nights were lovely! It was so good to see her again, unfortunately she is now back in Germany.
Deanne’s Art Opening – Deanne is Jess’s flatmate and had invited me to her art opening at a gallery in east St. Kilda, so I went. Although art is not really my thing I enjoyed that evening very much 🙂 also, it was another chance to catch up with Jess and Deanne.
Real Steel – I saw that movie with Priscilla at Knox, and it was amazing! Hugh Jackman is an australian actor and did great, but the kid was the actual main character. It is a great movie with much more depth than you would assume from the trailers. It is the best movie I have seen in a long time and really recommend it to everyone!
On a more or less nice Sunday in the middle of the month, Carole and Garry took me to an outlet of Hargreave’s Hill Brewery in the Dandenongs where we had a beer tasting before lunch. After lunch we stopped at Domaine Chandon, a winery where we tasted some (sparkling) wines.
Never before did I try a red sparkling wine! I didn’t even know they existed, although it is logical when you know that sparkling wine is simply wine that has been fermented twice.
The winery gave a really nice view over the Yarra Valley 🙂
The next weekend I was on my own – all my student friends are really busy now, facing their end-of-term exams. So I went to the ACMI in the city. First I went through the “Star Voyager” exhibition, then through “Screen Worlds“, where I got the chance to play Tomb Raider 1. That was like travelling back in time for 15 years!
The following day I went to see Flagstaff Gardens and the Queen Victoria Market. It was a hot and sunny day, really nice. At the QVM I bought a fancy tie for the evening at Dracula’s Cabaret.
Tuesday night I went dancing for the first time since I came to Melbourne. Priscilla joined me and we checked out a local dancing school. Although the dances are the same, the way of teaching was very different from what I am used to. It was great fun nevertheless, and we’re going again!
Thursday night, Jess and I went to see Dracula’s Cabaret in Melbourne. It was my birthday present to her and definitely the highlight of this month. The atmosphere, the decoration, the staff’s outfits and acting and the show itself were absolutely amazing! It wasn’t the cheapest night, but it was definitely worth the money. And the little extra money to get VIP tickets was more than worth it. Everyone who visits Melbourne: this is a MUST DO here!
On the last weekend of the month I went out with Sam again. First she showed me the major graffiti street in Melbourne, then we had dinner at Degraves St. After that we went into Southgate and checked out the Chill On Ice Lounge. That was literally cool! But awesome!
We topped off the evening with the movie “In Time” at the Crown entertainment complex. Another awesome movie, very innovative storyline. Another recommendation from me.

At the moment Melbourne is all about the Spring Racing Carneval – a whole lot of horse races taken out in about 3 weeks’ time, with the peak on Cup Day which is even a public holiday in Melbourne and advertised as “the race that stops the nation”.

For the people that go to see the races it’s first of all a reason to celebrate. They dress up as fashionable as possible, with the most important item being the hats, or “fascinators” as they’re called when the only purpose is to make the women look fascinating 😀

When I was out Saturday night with Sam we saw all these people who had been at the races in Flemington swarming through the city to get a fine dinner. Later on, we saw heaps of them at Crown. After betting on the races, why not finish the night with gambling at the Casino?

Anyway, when we had finished our movie the scenery at Crown had completely changed: all the race-people had gone and the complex was full of younger people that were out to party. Fascinating!

Since Cup Day is on the 1st of November, this will go into my next blog post 😉

For now, enjoy my photos of Melbourne in October:

From 2011-10 Melbourne 🙂. Posted by Philipp Hübner on 10/09/2011 (110 items)